A Mother who lost her daughter to a deadly heart condition is hoping to save other families from suffering the same tragedy.

Doreen Harley has organised the first free heart screening in North Wales to take place at Beaufort Park Hotel, New Brighton, on Saturday.

She has dedicated herself to raising awareness about Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) after losing her daughter, Lisa Jane Brown, a Countess of Chester nurse, died of Long QT Syndrome in January 1998.

Mrs Harley of Connah’s Quay, said screening has already saved the life of her husband, Terry, their other daughter Rachel Willn, 29, and Rachel’s six year-old son, Jack – who were all diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome after Lisa’s death.

All are closely monitored by doctors, and Rachel had a heart defibrillator, which “kick started” her heart when she blacked out last August.

Mrs Harley, who is now the North Wales and Chester representative for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) said the hardest part about organising a free screening session was raising the £6,666 needed.

She said Scottish Power had donated £1,100, and the rest of the money was raised by the Buckley and Mold Lions’ Club and by Geoff and Maureen Rutherford, of the Miners’ Arms, whose son Jonathan died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

She said: ‘It makes me feel it will be a job worth doing.  If I can save any other family from the tragedy that we have gone through it will be worth all the hard work.’

A total of 39 people aged between 14 and 35 years old will be screened on Saturday.

Each person will have an ECG - to check the electrical heart tracing – an echo gram to check the muscles, values and blood flow to the heart, they will be examined by a heart specialist, weighed, measured and have their blood pressure checked.

She said each person will have the results of their test within 15 days and anybody with abnormalities will be referred to the NHS.

The volunteers were chosen of a first come, first served basis after an article about free screening was printed in the Leader

She said her phone rang constantly for days and she already has names on a reserve list for a screening session planned for later in the year.

A charity trust has donated the £6,666 needed to pay for the next screening session and anybody interested should contact Mrs Harley.

Soldier’s All Heart in Bid for Charity

A Royal Welsh Fusilier is literally wearing his heart on his sleeve as he prepares to run the London Marathon in April.

Corporal Carl Thomas stepped into his giant heart costume, which he will clamber into before the starting pistol fires, and did a spot of training outside a Wrexham supermarket.

The soldier, who is a recruitment officer at Hightown Barracks, has chosen to run for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), a charity that raises money for research into why young people die from heart conditions that go undetected.

Cpl Thomas said: ‘I have a mate, WO2 (Warrant Officer Class 2) Mark Harry, based in the South of England, who lost his son, David, last October.  He was only 15.’

‘He died suddenly during the night, because of a heart condition they knew nothing about.’

‘This is the reason why I am running for CRY.’

Cpl Thomas must raise at least £1,250 to enter the marathon and that’s why he popped down to Asda in Wrexham to generate support from shoppers.

He ran on his treadmill for six hours and there’s no doubt he got the support he wanted.

He’ll be running alongside others raising money for CRY, and will definitely get noticed amongst the thousands of other runners!

It’s the sixth time Cpl Thomas has completed the gruelling 26.5 mile course, but the first time he’s done it for CRY.

MP Calls for Action to Back SADS Campaign

A Flintshire MP is trying to help raise the awareness of a campaign group dedicated to helping families affected by Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

Mark Tami, MP for Alyn and Deeside, is appealing to authorities to help the campaign group Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), a group set up the help families who have lost a loved one from SADS and direct them towards the correct support groups.

CRY has also set up a counselling training session for people who have suffered the loss of a loved one and would like to train to help others cope with loss.

Mr Tami said: “This counselling programme is being funded by the Government and CRY is circulating posters to all libraries to raise awareness of the service.”

“I am sure our own libraries will display the posters and I hope other across the country will follow suit.”